Miscellaneous Links 24/01/11

New Hampshire GOP picks tea party-style leader [We are here for the long haul folks]

DERRY, N.H. – New Hampshire Republicans elected a tea party figure as their leader and rejected the establishment-backed candidate, a sign that activists in this early voting presidential state have embraced the anti-government message that helped them make major gains in November’s election. Former gubernatorial candidate Jack Kimball edged businesswoman Juliana Bergeron in a race that pitted White House veterans against first-time voters. Kimball, who said he would “send Barack Obama packing” and elect a Republican governor in 2012, promised not to shy from a fight. “We are in a war and we are going to win it,” Kimball said. “We are going to pull ourselves from the brink. We are going after the Democrats the whole time.”Source.

The rise of checkpoints in America, as well as the indignities we suffer at the hands of airport Transportation Security Administration agents, is merely outward evidence of a much deeper net being cast around individual liberty. According to a recent Washington Post investigative report, “Top Secret America,” a web of 3,984 Federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, complete with technologies used on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan, has been developed by the FBI. The process is constructing a database with the names and personal information of thousands of U.S. citizens and residents whom any local police officer or a fellow citizen might believe to be acting suspiciously.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, who as Governor of Arizona built one of the strongest state intelligence organizations to stop illegal immigration and drug importation (the raison d’être for those roadblocks), has launched a “See Something, Say Something” campaign to encourage citizens to become informants.

One can’t help but reflect on George Orwell’s dystopian novel, 1984. Published in 1949, it is a nightmarish depiction of what life could be like if the repressive nature of government was extrapolated from those post-World War days into the future. Orwell’s prescience is unnerving.

Cognitive scientist Steven Pinker tallied the similarities between Orwell’s novel and today’s world in his 2003 book, The Blank Slate. The elements of that Orwellian nightmare are either proposed or already here. Government euphemisms… national identity cards… surveillance cameras on streets and in shopping malls, and drones… satellites in the sky… personal data on the Internet… endless wars with shifting enemies… dossiers in government databanks… and ever-increasing controls on the actions and statements of individual citizens. Source.

America’s Economy: The Ninth-Freest [America lurches leftward]

America has slipped one spot since last year — from earth’s eighth-freest economy in 2010, according to the 2011 Index of Economic Freedom. This 17th annual report, jointly published by the Heritage Foundation and the Wall Street Journal, sifts through the wreckage caused by government’s turbocharged acceleration during the Bush-Obama years. America’s slump in the rankings (we’re down from No. 5 in 2008) confirms the urgent need for Washington to revitalize free markets and restrain government intervention. Among the 179 countries examined in the Index, Hong Kong is ranked first, followed by Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland, Canada, Ireland, and Denmark. Source.

Rep. Michele Bachmann to deliver Tea Party response to State of the Union [Someone has to deal it to the socialist scumbag]

Minnesota Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann, one of the most conservative members of Congress and founder of the Congressional Tea Party Caucus, will deliver an alternative response to President Obama’s State of the Union address on Jan. 25th, her office confirmed Friday. The speech, which will be broadcast online and sponsored by Tea Party Express, a California-based political action committee, will compete with the Republican’s official response by Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, chairman of the House Budget Committee. Source.

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NZ Herald article Aug 17th 2014

"Top 100 tweeters to follow this election"

No. 6. Redbaiter @Redbaiternz

"Redbaiter's extreme right, anonymous diatribes pepper the New Zealand blogosphere and make Whaleoil seem left-wing. He comes across as crazy as they come, but that's why he (or she) is worth reading."